Divine Vengeance?
by Sanchari Das
Summary: Story of a grave crime committed in the past that resulted in a punishment set aside by some divine powers


_**Divine Vengeance?**_

She willed herself to not check her phone to see if he had replied. It had been about three days now. She hated that she was constantly checking his 'last seen at' status and yes, he had logged in just five minutes ago. Yet she couldn't stop herself. This sinking feeling to find absolutely no communication from him was becoming unbearable, almost torturous.

And then, just as she sat down in her chair, her phone vibrated. With her heart thudding in her ear, she unlocked her phone and stared at the screen. Finally! It was his message.

But when she opened it and read it, she nearly stopped breathing. She didn't know if he was joking or not. What was this? Was he mocking her present condition?

The message read:

Darling, you have been the most beautiful girl I have ever met who once had filled my dull and boring life with ecstasy. And you have grown far more beautiful to me, now. How can I ever think of breaking our five year long relation? And, how could you ask me such a question?

Aarti stared at the message until her eyes burned and tears rolled down her checks. It had been one week since the incident and three days since she messaged Karan to ask whether he still wanted to be in the relationship. She didn't have the courage to call him.

She had expected and had almost prepared herself to hear a negative answer but this reply came totally out of the blue, leaving her breathless and in tears. The question that lingered on her mind was: Why did he still use the word 'beautiful'? How can she still be beautiful after the dreadful incident that left her with a burnt ill-figured face?

The fact that troubled Aarti the most was: How can Karan, a boy so obsessed with beauty, still want to be with her? She still remembered clearly how he had broken up with his ex-girlfriend Ritu, just two days after she became an acid attack victim and returning his engagement ring had came to Aarti mesmerized by her beauty. She remembered how back then they had together laughed at poor Ritu and called her ugly. But now when she herself is going through the same plight, she can understand what a grave mistake they have done!

Karan logged out and laid straight in his bed reminiscing about all his past mistakes, his obsession with beauty and his horrendous misdeeds. People often do wrong things in their life and get away with it, but they can't be sure as things can come back even after years to haunt them and make them feel guilty all their life. The same was the case with Karan. The heinous crime that he had committed five years ago came back to haunt him in the form of the mishaps that occurred with his sister Sheela and his girlfriend Aarti.

Karan had never believed in 'Karma' but now he knew that although there is no physical or earthly connection between the crime he had committed and the pain Sheela and Aarti are suffering, there is perhaps some divine connection between the two. He believed that he is the real reason behind the two mishaps.

Karan's mind forcefully took him to his guilty past—yes, to the part he never wanted to visit…

Five years ago…

"But Karan, we are engaged, you just can't leave me like this, okay," Ritu shouted at him.

"I don't love you anymore, Ritu. Have you seen your face in the mirror recently? It had become so dull and lifeless. It doesn't attract me anymore, Ritu. I'm in love with Aarti now. Her milky white complexion, her elegant eyes, her rosy lips mesmerizes me. I'm in love with them," Karan replied.

"And what about my love for you, Karan? Why are you running after physical beauty? All these years, the only thing I had in my mind was to marry and get settle with you. We had dreamt and planed our beautiful future together, what will happen to that, Karan? You just can't leave me alone in the middle of the road and just walk away like that. YOU JUST CAN'T! " Ritu shouted and broke down in tears.

"Oh, come-on, Ritu. Stop throwing tantrums, now as if I were the only boy alive in the universe. And, who are you to tell me what I can or can't? I will do whatever I want. And now, I'm breaking up with you and that's that," Karan said rudely and tried to walk away.

But Ritu caught him from behind. "No, no, Karan, you can't leave me like this. What will they say? What will happen to my parents? We are already engaged, Karan…"

"Uff! What a disgusting girl you are, Ritu. Why don't you understand?" Karan said as he put his right hand slowly in his pocket to get hold of the bottle in it.

"Karan… Karan please listen to me. Look at me Karan, please," Ritu pleaded as he tightened his grip on the bottle.

"I'm still beautiful, Karan and if you say so I would even go through a fairness treatment. But please don't leave me," Ritu begged, crying profusely, while Karan unscrewed the cap of the bottle.

"Karan, are you listening?" Ritu shouted.

At this point, Karan turned back and taking out the bottle from his pocket quickly threw it all over her face. Ritu gave a terrible cry of pain and fell to the ground.

"Now, no fairness company can make you beautiful again," Karan laughed and walked away.

Karan shut his eyes tight and tears rolled down as he remembered the dreadful incident and the crime he had committed filled his heart with guilt. He had laughed at Ritu back then and had happily gone into the arms of Aarti thereafter. He had already bribed the police and hence they didn't find any evidence against him and he had easily got away. He didn't even realize his mistake until…

"Your sister is out of danger, now. But…," the doctor said, coming out of the operation room.

"But what doctor? But WHAT?" Karan shouted, nervously. Sheela had fallen off the stairs on the day of her engagement and had suffered profuse bleeding.

"You see, her brain had suffered a major damage, so much that we thought she would go in coma. But somehow we have managed to prevent that. Still…" the doctor hesitated.

"Still what doctor?" Karan asked restlessly.

"She would be able to understand everything… but… but… won't be able to respond to any of it."

"WHAT!" exclaimed Karan and fell to the ground, crying. Needless to say, her fiancé broke their engagement.

Aarti couldn't sleep. Ritu's burnt face kept on haunting her. The face she had laughed at, the face she had made fun of, the face she had called ugly was in no way different from the one she sees in the mirror now. She had become the owner of that face now. She twisted and turned in her bed until finally she sat up to make a call.

"Karan, I'm not able to sleep," she said over the phone.

"Aarti, stop rewinding the dreadful incident again and again in your brain. I said na I'm there with your, sweetheart…" Karan tried to comfort her.

"It's not about me, Karan. It's about Ritu…" Aarti blurted out.

"Ritu?" Karan asked, surprised.

"Yes, Ritu. You remember her right? Her burnt face is haunting me, Karan. We had really been very unfair to her. My heart is filled with guilt and repentance. I'm not able to breathe. I… I… " Aarti broke down.

"Okay, okay, cool down Aarti. Please don't cry like that. Please try and forget the past, dear. It was just a mistake," Karan tried to calm her down.

"It wasn't just a mistake Karan. It was a crime—a terrible mistake. You shouldn't have left her like that when some miscreants threw acid on her. We shouldn't have laughed at her when she needed our support. We shouldn't have called her ugly… Look at me, now Karan…Today I'm no less ugly than her and I think I deserved it…" Aarti said, still crying.

"I know, Aarti, I know that was a horrible mistake. We shouldn't have done that. But there is no use crying now. Fine, you try to sleep tonight and tomorrow we would surely pay her a visit and beg pardon for our misdeeds. At least we would be able to get rid of our guilt if not anything else," Karan replied.

"Promise?"

"Promise, baby. Good night. Try and get some sleep, dear."

"Good night, Karan. Love you."

"Love you, too."

Karan cut the phone. Aarti still don't know there wasn't any miscreants who destroyed Ritu's face and spoiled her whole life, but it was Karan himself who took the responsibility to ruin her life just to fulfill his own desire to break their engagement and to get married to Aarti. Karan's guilt was much more than Aarti's.

The night passed somehow and the morning drew closer. Throughout the night Aarti had practiced what to say and what not to say to Ritu. Her restlessness subdued only when she recognized the sound of Karan's bike as it approached her house. She ran and sat behind him and off they went to Ritu's house.

But when they reached there, they were greeted by a locked door and it looked as if it had been so for years. They then knocked the door of their neighbor. An old lady came out. "Yes, whom do you want?"

"Umm… do you know anything about the girl Ritu who lived in this house?" Karan asked, pointing to her house.

"Ritu? Well, who are you people?" she asked, suddenly growing suspicious.

"Her friends. We had studied together in school. It had been a long time since we saw her so…" Aarti quickly replied.

"Were you acid-attacked?" she questioned, looking at Aarti.

"Yes…"

"Umm… Well, five years ago, the same happened with Ritu too… Her face too looked the same as yours. Her fiancé…umm… someone called Karan threw acid on her face and broke their relationship. Police, however, didn't find any evidence against the boy so he was left unpunished. Ritu was very heart-broken. One day when her parents weren't at home, she hanged herself. That was the end of your friend, Ritu. With no one to live for, her parents later left Kolkata and shifted to their village and the house had remained locked since then," explained the old lady with a sigh.

"Oh!" Karan exclaimed.

Aarti looked at Karan and he lowered his gaze. The lady gave a short glance at both of them and then closed the door. Their apology remained unfinished and their guilt, eternal…


End file.
